Tuesday, 24 July 2018
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Ambrosia of The Purple Booker.
To play along just do the following:
Wicked and the Wallflower by Sarah MacLean.
Wait, you’ll say, didn’t we recently have a YA book by this author? You’d be right, of course … all the points to you in that case, because I only realised this when I sorted my library. Same author, same time period, slightly different age category. Same capturing writing.
I knew in theory that the author of The Season had written adult books before and that her genre of choice was historical romance. It just didn’t quite connect in my head. But now I see the parallels of well-written main characters and relationship development.
This one is obviously more mature although I wouldn’t necessarily say that it’s overtly racy. The author also opens up quite an intricate plot arc that will carry the reader over the next two books even if they’ll be leaving behind the main characters I grew to like in this one.
Fun, with a bit of substance, and very entertaining. If historical romance with a touch of crime detection is your thing, I’d definitely recommend picking up this series. If historical crime detection and a little romantic development are more to your taste, try out the YA. I’ll have a look at the other adult books and semi-patiently wait for the sequel, which was meanly teased in the back of this book and now I really want to read on. Mission accomplished I’d say.
Crossing from YA to adult or the other way around can be tricky. But which do you think is trickier? I’m always interested in authors who have made the passage from one side or the other and would be happy about suggestions. Let’s hear from you in the comments!
To play along just do the following:
- Grab your current read
- Open to a random page
- Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
Wicked and the Wallflower by Sarah MacLean.
 |
| Wicked and the Wallflower – Avon Books |
“How did you come in?”
“You’ve a balcony, Juliet.”
“I’ve also a bedchamber on the third floor, not-Romeo.”
— Chapter 5
“Why should others be the ones to decide which doors are for me?”
The question, so honest, so forthright, made him want to break down every door she came to from now until the end of time.
— Chapter 15
Wait, you’ll say, didn’t we recently have a YA book by this author? You’d be right, of course … all the points to you in that case, because I only realised this when I sorted my library. Same author, same time period, slightly different age category. Same capturing writing.
I knew in theory that the author of The Season had written adult books before and that her genre of choice was historical romance. It just didn’t quite connect in my head. But now I see the parallels of well-written main characters and relationship development.
This one is obviously more mature although I wouldn’t necessarily say that it’s overtly racy. The author also opens up quite an intricate plot arc that will carry the reader over the next two books even if they’ll be leaving behind the main characters I grew to like in this one.
Fun, with a bit of substance, and very entertaining. If historical romance with a touch of crime detection is your thing, I’d definitely recommend picking up this series. If historical crime detection and a little romantic development are more to your taste, try out the YA. I’ll have a look at the other adult books and semi-patiently wait for the sequel, which was meanly teased in the back of this book and now I really want to read on. Mission accomplished I’d say.
Crossing from YA to adult or the other way around can be tricky. But which do you think is trickier? I’m always interested in authors who have made the passage from one side or the other and would be happy about suggestions. Let’s hear from you in the comments!
Tuesday, 17 July 2018
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Ambrosia of The Purple Booker.
To play along just do the following:
Not If I Save You First by Ally Carter.
This was such a quick and fun read. I really needed a pick-me-up-read after the week I had and trust Ally Carter to deliver just the right portion of girl-power, snark, thrill, and friendship-turned-romance without actually being a romantic drama (even though it has all the ingredients for one).
If my parents at any point in my life carted me off to the disconnected wilderness without so much as an explanation I don’t know if I’d taken it as well as Maddie has. But then again I’m not the daughter of a secret service professional and used to taking orders without scrutiny – though I think my parents wouldn’t have been disinclined. I can, however, imagine what it would be like if someone formerly important to you suddenly drops back into your life without much warning and seems to expect things just picking up where they left off. After six years. Maybe a kidnapping situation is not the best moment to hash things out, but sometimes you have to take what you can get.
I would have liked the emotional level to be a little more fleshed out and to go into a bit more detail. The situation is an extreme one and probably makes you reconsider past hurts and lies. The aftermath just felt a little too smooth and glossed over for my taste. I had a good chuckle at the Gallagher Girls connection though. So really a quick read which might have profited from maybe another 20 to 50 pages … also meaning I really didn’t want to let these adorable characters go.
Having just read a book very firmly set in the Alaskan winter I’m quite thankful that summer seems to shape up to be a good one this year. How are your plans, are you going on vacation? And how many books are you taking? Let’s hear from you in the comments!
To play along just do the following:
- Grab your current read
- Open to a random page
- Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
Not If I Save You First by Ally Carter.
 |
| Not If I Save You First – Scholastic Press |
And right then, Maddie knew she had two options.
She could go for help, summon the cavalry and call the guards.
Or there was option two.
How many times had she questioned her father’s sanity, wondering what kind of person ran toward gunshots?
— Chapter 8
But Logan had learned a long time ago that there was nothing you could give a man with a gun to make him happy. Men with guns were only satisfied when they took.
— Chapter 10
This was such a quick and fun read. I really needed a pick-me-up-read after the week I had and trust Ally Carter to deliver just the right portion of girl-power, snark, thrill, and friendship-turned-romance without actually being a romantic drama (even though it has all the ingredients for one).
If my parents at any point in my life carted me off to the disconnected wilderness without so much as an explanation I don’t know if I’d taken it as well as Maddie has. But then again I’m not the daughter of a secret service professional and used to taking orders without scrutiny – though I think my parents wouldn’t have been disinclined. I can, however, imagine what it would be like if someone formerly important to you suddenly drops back into your life without much warning and seems to expect things just picking up where they left off. After six years. Maybe a kidnapping situation is not the best moment to hash things out, but sometimes you have to take what you can get.
I would have liked the emotional level to be a little more fleshed out and to go into a bit more detail. The situation is an extreme one and probably makes you reconsider past hurts and lies. The aftermath just felt a little too smooth and glossed over for my taste. I had a good chuckle at the Gallagher Girls connection though. So really a quick read which might have profited from maybe another 20 to 50 pages … also meaning I really didn’t want to let these adorable characters go.
Having just read a book very firmly set in the Alaskan winter I’m quite thankful that summer seems to shape up to be a good one this year. How are your plans, are you going on vacation? And how many books are you taking? Let’s hear from you in the comments!
Tuesday, 10 July 2018
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Ambrosia of The Purple Booker.
To play along just do the following:
On Beauty by Zadie Smith.
Quite the contrast to last week, but who said that this blog had to be following an agenda? I first read this book as an assigned reading in university; the lecturer was quite a fan of the author and while I wasn’t quite convinced at the time I can now at least see where this appreciation came from. A possible case of predetermined mindset to not truly like assigned readings. I’m not sure if this would have extended to books like The Fault in Our Stars, but let’s be thankful that I don’t have to find out.
In any case, this book was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2005 and has won a slew of other awards and now that I don’t have to analyse the prose but can just read and enjoy it I can say I understand how Zadie Smith earnt so many accolades as an outstanding novelist. Her writing is clean, to the point, and at the same time so heart-breakingly beautiful, insightful, and spot-on comical when it needs to be.
Two things truly stand out to me: The characters in this book don’t feel like protagonists in a book to me. They could just as well be living across the street that’s how real and defined they are, which is definitely one of the author’s biggest strengths that she manages to write people so well. And the other thing is how organic this story feels, which almost dissolves the fictional distance. It could also be a real reality-documentation (see, I can relate two apparently unrelatable books). That way you slowly move from one event to the next and it doesn’t feel at all constructed but like a logical consequence of all that came before. And if a writer can make you understand this process and seamlessly move along with it I think that’s what distinguishes a really accomplished author.
Not your usual gripping page-turner but more of a steady river of actions that will nonetheless have you reading on and wondering how this will turn out. Truly beautiful.
Have you revisited an assigned reading book and maybe developed a new appreciation for it? Share your reads and teasers in the comments!
To play along just do the following:
- Grab your current read
- Open to a random page
- Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
On Beauty by Zadie Smith.
 |
| On Beauty – Penguin Books |
He did not consider if or how or why he loved them. They were just love: they were the first evidence he ever had of love, and they would be the last confirmation of love when everything else fell away.
— Part 2, Chapter 9
She had no idea what it was all about, but she was not in any way nervous. She was still flying on fury, capable of anything.
— Part 3, Chapter 12
Quite the contrast to last week, but who said that this blog had to be following an agenda? I first read this book as an assigned reading in university; the lecturer was quite a fan of the author and while I wasn’t quite convinced at the time I can now at least see where this appreciation came from. A possible case of predetermined mindset to not truly like assigned readings. I’m not sure if this would have extended to books like The Fault in Our Stars, but let’s be thankful that I don’t have to find out.
In any case, this book was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2005 and has won a slew of other awards and now that I don’t have to analyse the prose but can just read and enjoy it I can say I understand how Zadie Smith earnt so many accolades as an outstanding novelist. Her writing is clean, to the point, and at the same time so heart-breakingly beautiful, insightful, and spot-on comical when it needs to be.
Two things truly stand out to me: The characters in this book don’t feel like protagonists in a book to me. They could just as well be living across the street that’s how real and defined they are, which is definitely one of the author’s biggest strengths that she manages to write people so well. And the other thing is how organic this story feels, which almost dissolves the fictional distance. It could also be a real reality-documentation (see, I can relate two apparently unrelatable books). That way you slowly move from one event to the next and it doesn’t feel at all constructed but like a logical consequence of all that came before. And if a writer can make you understand this process and seamlessly move along with it I think that’s what distinguishes a really accomplished author.
Not your usual gripping page-turner but more of a steady river of actions that will nonetheless have you reading on and wondering how this will turn out. Truly beautiful.
Have you revisited an assigned reading book and maybe developed a new appreciation for it? Share your reads and teasers in the comments!
Tuesday, 3 July 2018
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Ambrosia of The Purple Booker.
To play along just do the following:
Royce Rolls by Margaret Stohl.
Here goes nothing: Show of hands for everyone who doesn’t (officially) watch so-called reality shows and yet can still name every Kardashian, Jenner, and what’s their face by name and possibly their dogs as well. You can’t evade them on a basic level and like a bizarre crash performance you can’t really look away.
This book carries the idea to an extreme by making the middle “problem” child the centre of its plot, only that Bentley on TV is most decidedly not Bent when the cameras aren’t rolling. At heart, she really wants to be like any other girl and has the shocking dream to go to university … unthinkable considering that Bentley, as the whole country knows, couldn’t give a flying fox about anything school related. But which is the real girl Bentley or Bent? And which version of her family will actually survive if the worst/best happens and the show is cancelled? How far is Bent willing to go to save the show in order to save her family?
Sarcasm is second nature to me so I don’t quite know, why parodies aren’t too far up on my favourite list. Nevertheless, this book had me giggle-snorting on several occasions and also kept me on my toes plot-wise. Because this is not just some poking fun at reality TV and all the absurd stuff flickering across screens on a daily basis. This is at its core a coming of age story interwoven with a cleverly crafted crime plot. I wouldn’t go so far to call it suspense, but there are definitely elements of it present.
Bentley is a very relatable character who has dreams and aspirations beyond what everyone else thinks she should want. She only has the (mis)fortune to have quite the celebrity status and in that to be cast as the uncontrollable b*tch of the family. Actually not too different from the girl born into a family of footballers who wants to take ballet lessons … just as an example.
I get how this book can put you off just by looking at it, its topic, or the horrible trailer (which I won’t link to, that’s how horrible it is). But if you can either see beyond that or pick it up anyway, you’ll find quite the interesting story between these covers.
Which book has surprised you by being much better or deeper than you initially thought based on its appearance? Share your stories and teasers in the comments!
To play along just do the following:
- Grab your current read
- Open to a random page
- Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
- BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
- Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
Royce Rolls by Margaret Stohl.
 |
| Royce Rolls – Freeform |
“I’m an LG…B…TZ…B”
“You already hit B,” Bach said, amused. “But I appreciate you throwing the bonus Z in there. For all the Zesbians.”
— Chapter 8
They’re your family. You have to do whatever you can to help them, or you have to live with knowing that you walked away.
— Chapter 22
Here goes nothing: Show of hands for everyone who doesn’t (officially) watch so-called reality shows and yet can still name every Kardashian, Jenner, and what’s their face by name and possibly their dogs as well. You can’t evade them on a basic level and like a bizarre crash performance you can’t really look away.
This book carries the idea to an extreme by making the middle “problem” child the centre of its plot, only that Bentley on TV is most decidedly not Bent when the cameras aren’t rolling. At heart, she really wants to be like any other girl and has the shocking dream to go to university … unthinkable considering that Bentley, as the whole country knows, couldn’t give a flying fox about anything school related. But which is the real girl Bentley or Bent? And which version of her family will actually survive if the worst/best happens and the show is cancelled? How far is Bent willing to go to save the show in order to save her family?
Sarcasm is second nature to me so I don’t quite know, why parodies aren’t too far up on my favourite list. Nevertheless, this book had me giggle-snorting on several occasions and also kept me on my toes plot-wise. Because this is not just some poking fun at reality TV and all the absurd stuff flickering across screens on a daily basis. This is at its core a coming of age story interwoven with a cleverly crafted crime plot. I wouldn’t go so far to call it suspense, but there are definitely elements of it present.
Bentley is a very relatable character who has dreams and aspirations beyond what everyone else thinks she should want. She only has the (mis)fortune to have quite the celebrity status and in that to be cast as the uncontrollable b*tch of the family. Actually not too different from the girl born into a family of footballers who wants to take ballet lessons … just as an example.
I get how this book can put you off just by looking at it, its topic, or the horrible trailer (which I won’t link to, that’s how horrible it is). But if you can either see beyond that or pick it up anyway, you’ll find quite the interesting story between these covers.
Which book has surprised you by being much better or deeper than you initially thought based on its appearance? Share your stories and teasers in the comments!
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